Gaius Valerius Flaccus (/ˈflækəs/; died c. AD 90) was a 1st-century Roman poet who flourished during the "Silver Age" under the Flavian dynasty,[1][2] and wrote a Latin Argonautica that owes a great deal to Apollonius of Rhodes' more famous epic.
A subscription in the Vatican manuscript adds the name Setinus Balbus, a name which suggests that its holder was a native of Setia in Latium, however it is not clear if this inscription refers to "Valerius Flaccus" or someone else.
[11] The poem's text, as it has survived, is in a very corrupt state; it ends so abruptly with the request of Medea to accompany Jason on his homeward voyage, that it is assumed by most modern scholars[12] that it was never finished.
[6] In 1911, the compilers of the Encyclopædia Britannica remarked, Various estimates have been formed of the genius of Valerius Flaccus, and some critics have ranked him above his original, to whom he certainly is superior in liveliness of description and delineation of character.
[6]More modern analysis has been more accepting of Valerius Flaccus' style, noting how it fits in the "long and energetic Roman tradition of appropriation of the golden age and iron age myths"[2] and commenting on his narrative technique: Valerius has unjustly suffered from being viewed as a doggedly earnest imitator of mightier models; his self-awareness and wry humour have gone largely unnoticed, although he has been commended for the poise of his versification and the acuity of his observation.